Male badgers who play away may help curb TB in cattle

Researchers fitted GPS collars to badgers and found some males strayed outside their territory at night

“Super-ranger” behaviour among badgers that travel way beyond their territory has been discovered by Irish zoologists who believe it could help limit the spread of tuberculosis.

Badgers are a protected species but they are known carriers of TB, which can be transmitted to other animals, including cattle. The Department of Agriculture announced a badger vaccination programme last month after an outbreak of TB among 75 herds in Co Kerry.

Despite permission being required to cull them, more than 100,000 badgers are believed to have been shot in the past few decades, according to the Irish Wildlife Trust. It claims 80 per cent of these would have been healthy.

Researchers at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) made the “super-ranger” discovery after attaching GPS tracking devices to nearly…